I know this is idle speculation, but if a foreign army invaded the U. S., removed the existing government and then left, I suspect there would be an ugly struggle for political power and most likely a civil war (secularists vs. Christian right?). Iraq really isn't a special case.
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Yes, there's a strong possibilty -- just about to the point of certainty -- that an invasion of the US, followed by a total collapse of order such as we're witnessing in Iraq would mean war between a variety of groups.
And, this might unfold in Iraq too.
Preventing this is a job for international peacekeepers not American forces who have, to date, acted only as violence magnets. I know it's fashionable in some quarters to blame the mayhem entirely upon a sinister collective of "former regime elements", theocratic nutjobs, al Qaeda and allied tradesmen but I think an overlooked force is working here.
We can conclude, by reading between the lines in American media accounts of events in Iraq and, more openly in the international press that even if Baathist and/or terrorist elements are in play, the larger problems are a.) the failure of the Americans to actually begin rebuilding anything of importance to Iraqis and b.) the brutality of the occupation which has made Iraqis prisoners in their own country.
No one should be surprised, after nearly a year of house intrusions, mass detentions, checkpoint killings of the innocent and other types of deadly and/or humiliating treatment that ordinary Iraqis are fed up with us and ready to shoot or, if they can't or won't get involved at that level, provide aid and comfort to those who shoot on their behalf.
So while it may be true that civil war (or whatever you'd call a war between a variety of competing groups) would follow an American pullout this is not an argument for a continued American presence, since all that's happening now is the competitors for power have a common target and the innocent suffer the wrath of Washington as it uses overkill tech to destroy resisters (I know Prof. Cole says civilians are not being targeted by Marines in Fallujah but other folks who're there have different stories to tell).
Therefore, peacekeepers yes, US military no.
Why? Because with the Americans you get Apaches and F-16s and B2s and laser guided JDAMs and depleted uranium shells and all the rest of the war machine the Pentagon's quite eager to use.
As I've written before, just as you wouldn't send a team of pyromaniacs to put out a fire we shouldn't keep insisting the US military, built to intimidate, dominate and kill -- like any other military only on a greater scale -- can provide security for the very people who are the target of its intimidating, dominating and killing ways.
.d.